. 2022 Oct 6;12:16774. doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-19860-8

Table 1.

Characteristics of included studies.

Study	Country	Study design	Inclusion/exclusion criteria	Data collection	Study period (year)	Medicine category	Sample size	Female (%)	Age (years)	Number of medications	Prevalence of polypharmacy (%) (cut-off)
Acute care setting
Hudhra⁵⁴	Albania Non-EU, UMIC	Cross-sectional	60 + years & discharged from internal medicine and cardiology department	Medical charts	2013	Rx	319	43.6	M 69.7 SD 6.1 Ra 60–89	M 7.8 SD 2.2	73.0 (7 +)
Matanovic⁵⁶	Croatia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & emergency admission to the internal medicine department	Medical charts & interview (patient, GP)^a	2009–2010	Rx, OTC^b	454	57.7	M 74.8 SD 4.2 Ra 65–94^a	M 5.3 SD 2.9	57.5 (5 +)
Mucalo⁵⁷	Croatia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication & hospitalised at the internal medicine department & patient/proxy capable of giving consent and communicating well	Medical charts & interview (patient/caregiver, GP); standardized data collection form	2014–2016	Rx, OTC^b	276	49.3	M 73.9 SD 6.2 Ra 65–92^a	M 7.8 SD 3.2^a	91.7 (5 +)
Radosevic⁵⁸	Croatia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication & hospitalised at the internal medicine department	Medical charts	2007^a	Rx	142	52.1^a	M 75.0 SD 6.3 Ra 65–97^a	M 6.3 SD 2.7^a	73.2 (5 +)^a
Gallagher⁵³	Czechia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & emergency admission to the geriatric department	Medical charts & patient assessment^a	2008	Rx	150	65.3^c	Mdn 82 IQR 77–86	Mdn 6 IQR 4–8	52.7 (6 +)^c
Kostkova⁵⁵	Slovakia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & hospitalised at the geriatric department & complete medical documentation; excluded who died	Medical charts	2008–2009	Rx^a	566	62.2	M 77.4 SD 6.8	NR	68.7 admission 87.8 discharge (6 +)
Wawruch⁵¹* Wawruch⁴⁹ Wawruch⁵⁰	Slovakia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & hospitalised at the internal medicine department & complete medical documentation; excluded who died	Medical charts	2003–2005	Rx, OTC^a	600	58.5	M 76.6 SD 6.5	NR	60.3 admission 62.3 discharge (6 +)
Community setting
Fialova⁵⁹	Czechia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & home care recipient	Patient assessment & interview (patient, caregiver) & medical charts; standardized data collection form^d	2001–2002	Rx, OTC	428	79.0	M 81.6 SD 7.0 Ra 65–98^a	M 6.7 SD 2.5^a	68.5 (6 +)
Kosinska⁶¹	Poland EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication	Prescriptions	2004	Rx	5086 (prescriptions)	64.8	M 74.5 Ra 65–100	NR	NR
Rajska-Neumann⁶³	Poland EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years	Questionnaire	2002–2003^a	Rx, OTC	1000; two cities I: 680 II: 320	65.4^c	I: M 72.6 SD 6.5; II: M 72.5 SD 6.0	I: M 6.9 SD 3.2; II: M 6.6 SD 3.1	50.4 (7 +)
Rajska-Neumann⁶⁴	Poland EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	100 + years	Questionnaire	1999–2000^e	Rx, OTC	92	83.7^c	M 101.7 SD 1.2 Ra 100–111	M 2.5 SD 2.5	32.6 (5 +)
Primejdie⁴⁸°	Romania EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years	Prescriptions	2013	Rx	345	61.2	M 74.8 SD 6.2 Ra 65–92	Mdn 3	NR
Kovacevic⁶²	Serbia Non-EU, UMIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication; excluded who did not claim prescriptions personally	Interview (patient) & medical charts; standardized data collection form	2012	Rx	509	57.4	M 74.8 SD 6.5 Ra 65–95	M 5.1 SD 2.2	37.0 (6 +)
Gorup⁶⁰	Slovenia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication & capable of giving consent and communicating well & life expectancy > 1 year	Questionnaire (patient) & patient assessment	2014–2015	Rx	503	56.7	M 74.9 SD 6.0 Ra 65–99	M 5.6 SD 2.9	62.2 (5 +)
LTC setting
Kalafutova⁷²	Czechia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 2 + medications & capable of giving consent and communicating well	Medical charts	2012	Rx, OTC^b	58	74.1^c	M 82.4 SD 8.3	Rx: M 8.9 OTC: M 1.2	Rx:82.8 (6 +)^c
Bor⁷¹	Hungary EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	Residing 12 + months in the LTC; excluded who died^f	Medical charts	2010–2015	Rx, OTC^a	184^a	78.8^a	M 82.6 SD 7.2 Ra 65–104^a	M 8.5 SD 3.8^a	91.3 (4 +)
Primejdie⁴⁸	Romania EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years	Medical charts	2013	Rx, OTC	91	58.2	M 80.8 SD 6.8 Ra 65–98	Mdn 8	NR
Stojanovic⁷⁵	Serbia Non-EU, UMIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication	Medical charts	2018	Rx	400	69.0^c	Mdn 83 IQR 11 Ra 65–99	Mdn 8 IQR 5	NR
Kolar⁷³	Slovakia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years	Medical charts	2014	Rx	70	58.6	M 79.9 SD 5.6 Ra 70–94^a	M 8.1 SD 9.8^a	90.0 (5 +)^a
Ster⁷⁴	Slovenia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & patient/proxy capable of giving consent & complete medical documentation	Medical charts; standardized data collection form	2006	Rx, OTC	2040	78.3	M 82.0 SD 7.7	M 5.8 SD 3.0	50.6 (6 +)
Outpatient setting
Popovic⁶⁸	Croatia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 5 + medications	Claims database	2010	Rx	29,418	63.2	M 77 SD 5.9 Ra 65–103^a	M 7.6 SD 1.8^a	NA (5 + inclusion criteria)
Vlahovic-Palcevski⁷⁰	Croatia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	70 + years & 1 + medication	Pharmacy database	2002	Rx	10,426^a	NR	NR	M 7.5	NR
Vinsova⁶⁹	Czechia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication	Claims database	1997–2001	Rx	15,516	NR	NR	NR	NR
Grina⁶⁵	Lithuania EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication	Claims database	2015	Rx	431,625	68.1	M 75.8 SD 0.0	M 4.7 SD 0.0	57.5 (4 +)^g
Jazbar⁶⁶	Slovenia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication	Claims database	2013	Rx	345,400	60.0	M 75.4 SD 7.3 Ra 65–108^a	M 7.8 SD 4.9^a	72.1 (5 +)^a
Nerat⁶⁷	Slovenia EU, HIC	Cross-sectional	65 + years & 1 + medication	Claims database	2006	Rx	65 + : 298,990; 75 + : 136,076	NR	NR	65 + : M 7.7 SD 4.9; 75 + : M 8.3 SD 5.0	NR
Stuhec⁵²	Slovenia EU, HIC	Uncontrolled before-after	65 + years & 10 + medications & medication review & complete medical documentation	Medical charts & medication review documentation	2012–2014	Rx	91	61.5	M 77.5 Mdn 78 Ra 65–91	M 13.8 Mdn 13	NA (10 + inclusion criteria)

EU European Union, GP General practitioner, HIC High-income country, IQR Interquartile range, LTC Long-term care, M Mean, Mdn Median, NR Not reported, OTC Over-the-counter medication, Ra Range, Rx Prescription medication, Sd Standard deviation, UMIC Upper-middle-income country.

*Indicates the major publication for the study (the study was described in three reports).

°One report described two studies.

^aData were obtained and/or confirmed from study authors.

^bDietary supplements were also included.

^cCalculated.

^dInterRAI Minimum Data Set for Home Care instrument, MDS-HC⁷⁶.

^eData were obtained from publication by Sikora et al.⁷⁷.

^fData for persons aged 65 + years were obtained by correspondence.

^gDiscrepancies in publication resolved in correspondence.